DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Corey Heim will race the No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota in the Daytona 500 after locking in on his first attempt to qualify.
Justin Allgaier is back for the second year in a row, clinching the No. 40 JR Motorsports Chevrolet into the “Great American Race” after a dramatic wait in Daytona 500 qualifying on Wednesday at Daytona International Speedway.
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The duo posted the fastest time-trial laps of the eight Open entries attempting to make Sunday’s Daytona 500 (1:30 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), solidifying their spots in the NASCAR Cup Series season opener. Their starting positions, along with the final two open entrants to earn starting positions on Sunday’s grid, will be determined in Thursday night’s Duel at Daytona, twin 150-mile qualifying races (7 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Heim notched an impressive fifth-place qualifying effort in Wednesday’s time trials and Allgaier 14th, but the evening wasn’t that straightforward. Corey LaJoie, attempting the race in the No. 99 RFK Racing Ford, qualified with a lap time of 49.205 seconds — just 0.004 seconds slower than Allgaier.
That provisionally placed all three of them inside the top 10 during the first round of qualifying. The top 10 racers in Round 1 advance to the second round to run another lap, which meant LaJoie, Allgaier and Heim would have had to determine who locked in based on Wednesday’s speed. Instead, LaJoie and Allgaier were both bumped out of the top 10, locking Heim and Allgaier into the Daytona 500.
“That was something that caught me off guard,” Heim said. “Like I didn’t realize — I mean, I guess I’ve just watched enough Daytona qualifying and never seen three open cars make the final round. So I was kind of taking my deep breath, and then my engineers come over and said if all three guys make the final round, you’ve got to race it out. Like, holy crap, here we go again.
“But obviously it worked out and pretty impressive to see the lineup that we have in the open cars this year, and it’s definitely stressful being in that field and being in that bunch. But just our Robinhood Camry was really good today, so can’t say enough about those guys.”
In 2025, Allgaier and JR Motorsports missed locking into the Daytona 500 in time trials by a mere 0.009 seconds before ultimately racing in via the Duels. To advance Wednesday by an even smaller margin was not left on Allgaier, the 2023 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion.
“Last year, we missed qualifying in by 0.009 seconds,” Allgaier said. “This year it’s 0.004 the other way. So you can never take those moments for granted when it’s just a little bit of speed, and we definitely didn’t do that tonight.”
Although Allgaier and the JRM crew did eventually race into last year’s Daytona 500, Allgaier said during Wednesday’s Media Day availabilities that not qualifying in via time trials was a low unlike any other: “That valley was deeper than anything I can ever remember,” Allgaier said.
A twist of emotions existed again this year, but this time in a far less demoralizing fashion before leading to the euphoria of qualifying an Earnhardt-owned car into the Daytona 500.
“There’s nothing worse as a driver than feeling like you’re going to let somebody down and not doing your job in the best capacity you can,” Allgaier said. “And so I think this year was just different. So when we got in that situation and we knew we might have to run again, I don’t think it mattered.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr., co-owner of JR Motorsports, two-time Daytona 500 winner and a NASCAR Hall of Famer, was just as elated in Year 2 of entering a JRM Chevrolet into the “Great American Race.”
“I would say this is like just having more dessert, man,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “We ate a whole course last year, and we’re just getting to go back for seconds at the dessert table and just have a little more. I feel like that we’re in bonus time, if you will for both of us in our in our lives, honestly. It’s like we’re getting a little extra. We’ve already had pretty good careers together and on race track and behind the wheel and all that. This is a part of the story that we didn’t really know we (were) gonna get to live, so it’s pretty incredible.”
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Earnhardt Jr. estimated 80% of last year’s Daytona 500 core returned for this second attempt. That experience is something his sister and team co-owner Kelley Earnhardt Miller said helped drive the No. 40 team toward a renewed goal in the new year.
“Any time you do something the second time, there’s a lot of the newness and the nervousness that’s gone away, right?” Earnhardt Miller told NASCAR.com. “Everybody knows their role, what they’re doing to pull this together for this one race. And so it felt good coming back to do it with some of that in the hopper. I know they worked really hard, thought about last year and how things went, what they could do different. Justin was just saying about worrying about the time that he missed it by last year.
“It feels really good, but this team is super excited about it. And we’re in another Daytona 500!”
Entering the new year as the defending NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion, Heim has a 12-race schedule planned in Cup with 23XI Racing amid other part-time plans in the Truck Series. The first step, though, was locking into the “Great American Race,” a process Heim had never gone through previously.
“It’s definitely been a lot of pressure,” Heim said. “It’s been stressful. I think, just as a driver, you never can guarantee that you’re going to lock in in qualifying. And looking back at last year, I was able to see which teams were successful in the speedway qualifying side of things. Of course, it’s 99% car — if not more — as far as where you qualify here. So just kind of looking back at the other teams and how they’re qualified, I was like, dang, it’s gonna be pretty tight depending on how we how we unload.
“So definitely was stressful coming down here to lock myself in. But yeah, man, just can’t say enough about the piece we brought and such a relief off our shoulders to just go have some fun in the Duels tomorrow and try to learn and know that even if I do make a mistake, it’s not going to be a terminal mistake.”
Steve Lauletta, president of 23XI Racing, was far from surprised by Heim’s calm demeanor despite the pressure placed upon him and the No. 67 team entering this weekend. Lauletta lauded Heim’s talent and his fit within the team’s culture. To lock him into the Daytona 500 on his first attempt was mission accomplished.
“It’s just a big step for him,” Lauletta told NASCAR.com. “That’s why we’re doing this, to kind of keep his development moving in the right direction. A lot of effort put in by everybody at Airspeed. All the team’s working hard to make sure that he had everything he needed support-wise to get in. So really happy that it worked out that way.”
With development comes opportunities to improve, which remains atop the priority list for the 23-year-old prospect entering with his highest slate of Cup races to date.
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“I think the goal the rest of the races is the same for him, which is just complete all the laps, learn as he’s going,” Lauletta said. “You know, every time I talked to him, even last year, even if he was disappointed, I said, ‘Did you learn something?’ And he said yes. I said, ‘OK, then that’s why we’re doing this.’ So no pressure on him other than to learn something every time.”
Six drivers will be vying for the two remaining starting spots in Thursday’s twin qualifiers, with four drivers failing to qualify. Those half-dozen hopefuls are Chandler Smith, J.J. Yeley, Anthony Alfredo, Casey Mears, BJ McLeod and LaJoie.
Contributing: Staff report
